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PIMP PUNISHMENT

In a Fox News article i recently came across, a man named Joaquin Mendez-Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to involvement in a sex-trafficking ring in the southern United States (Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas). Many women had come forth and admitted to the courts that he and other men had forced them to sleep with up to 30 men per day for around 25 dollars each. Mendez-Hernandez, however, tried to claim that these predominantly Mexican women voluntarily participated in their own sex work.

While reading this article made me appreciate the court decision and the involvement of police and the law, it really got me thinking about pimps and how often they are actually convicted. In my previous project with sex trafficking I focused on an organization based in Washington D.C. that offered a lot of information about this topic. In most places, the pimps and men/women selling these young girls (and boys) have absolutely nothing to fear when it comes to the law. The girls are the ones who are actually arrested or searched on the streets and charged with involvement with prostitution. In most states there aren’t laws that can be used against these men. Pimps can simply blend into society while these poor children and women are forced to stand on corners wearing close to nothing in an attempt to gain customers and make their pimps profits.

In class we have talked tons about the patriarchy and even laws that still work against women and minorities in the United States. I think that by this point in time our political system should have laws actively working against these pimps and traffickers within the borders of our own country.